New Uses of Noncontact Metrology in Aerospace

In a recent article published at advancedmanufacturing.org, an inside look is given to a variety of technologies that meet the challenges of metrology in the aerospace industry, regarding speed, accuracy and data collection.

Below is a section of the article written about the Laser Design CyberGage 360 3D Scanning and Inspection System that has proven to meet and exceed the required standards. The fully-automated, non-contact CyberGage360 provides unprecedented combination of speed, ease-of use at a 7um accuracy – far better than competitive solutions.

Changing Requirements, Measuring Accuracy

As marketers often say, perception is everything, and 3D noncontact metrology has ridden a wave of acceptance in just the last four to five years, according to C. Martin Schuster, CEO for LaserDesign (Minneapolis), makers of high-accuracy laser scanners. LaserDesign provides individual scanners, both the XLP and SLP line of scanners, as well as integrating them into CMMs and cabinets.

“The data has always been accurate, but now manufacturing engineers and quality personnel are accepting the data. It is no longer a novelty,” he said. “We have done that by proving to be better than, or faster than, existing technology, which has typically been touch probes on CMMs.”

This acceptance also comes at a time when there are not only more airplanes needing to be built, but more inspection required as well. “We have heard from some of our customers that the FAA is mandating up to eight times more inspections than in the past to provide in-process inspection of batches,” said Schuster. He notes that there are some turbine blade manufacturing companies that have over 100 CMMs at a single location to keep up with the demand for 100% in-process inspection.

Accuracy specifications in terms of an adapted ISO standard written for CMMs equipped with touch probes can be done, but Schuster points out that such a specification is not well suited for a noncontact technology.

“ISO 10360 is based on measuring from point to point, but scanning measures the entire shape of the part—it measures the mating surfaces and how the part functions,” he said.

What is needed, he said, is a standard methodology to measure against the ISO 17450 GD&T standard, which measures form and function.

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05. 08. 18

CyberOptics will demonstrate the MRS-Enabled SQ3000 with multi-process capabilities including 3D AOI, SPI and CMM applications at SMT Nuremberg, Germany, June 5-7 at the Messe GmbH in hall 4, stand 101.